No decision yet on making Covid-19 vaccination free: Mumbai civic body

Civic body to wait for state govt guidelines; Mumbai mayor says she feels citizens shouldn’t be charged

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), India’s richest civic body, on Saturday maintained that no decision has been taken on making Covid-19 vaccination free for citizens. Mumbai mayor and Shiv Sena corporator Kishori Pednekar said the BMC will wait for state government guidelines, but as a mayor, she feels that citizens should not be charged for Covid-19 vaccination.

Vidhan Bhavan employees in queue to get tested for Covid-19, at Nariman Point on Saturday. (Anshuman Poyrekar/HT Photo)

According to BMC officials, it is almost clear that there will have to be two doses of vaccine for every individual, but clarity on whether vaccination will be free or not will be decided after guidelines from the Central and state governments. On Friday, the BMC’s task force for vaccination in the city held its first meeting to prepare a strategy for vaccination of over 1.24 crore citizens in Mumbai.

In the meeting, it was decided that the first dose will be administered to 1.25 lakh frontline workers in 15 days after the vaccine arrives, and the second dose will be administered in 15 days after a buffer of 28 days. According to BMC officials, the first target will be to vaccinate 1.25 lakh frontline workers, followed by the police force and conservancy workers in the second phase, and in the third phase, all citizens above the age of 50 will be vaccinated.

Suresh Kakani, additional commissioner, BMC, said, “Whether the Covid-19 vaccine will be administered for free or not is something I cannot comment at this stage. Central and state governments will come out with their guidelines in the same context, and we will take a decision after considering it.”

Kakani added, “For now, the focus is on vaccinating frontline workers, and the logistics required for it, including trained manpower. We are going to take help from non-governmental organisations (NGO) when it comes to manpower.”

BMC had on Friday decided to form 5,000 teams, wherein each team will have five members for vaccinating the whole city. The BMC has also decided to have two to three vaccination centres in each ward. For now, BMC is in the process of procuring deep freezers and has set up a central vaccine storage facility in Kanjurmarg.

Commenting on the same, Pednekar said, “We are bound by the guidelines of the state government, and we will follow it when it comes to giving free vaccination or charging citizens. However, as a mayor, if you ask me, I feel Covid-19 vaccination must be given to all citizens free of charge to ensure every citizen has access to the vaccine.”

Meanwhile, India is banking on four to five vaccines, for which trials are being conducted or will be started in the coming days. These include the US pharmaceutical giant’s Pfizer vaccine, one by Oxford University, Russia’s Sputnik V, and India’s Covaxin by Bharat-Biotech.

On the pricing end, Oxford University’s Covid-19 vaccine is expected to be priced at ₹500-₹600, Adar Poonawalla, chief executive officer of Serum Institute of India, had told Hindustan Times on November 19.

Pfizer has maintained it will have different rates for its Covid-19 vaccine for different countries, as the company aims to make the vaccine available across the world. The price bracket for other vaccines is not known yet.